As many have said, the United States is a nation of laws, and we must accept a jury's verdict.

But we don’t have to like them. And as Americans, we have an obligation to use these verdicts as a rallying cry to change laws such as the "Stand your ground" self-defense law that do nothing but perpetuate and encourage ingrained biases.

The system did fail Trayvon Martin. Self-defense laws should not allow an aggressor to claim self-defense in the middle of an altercation, and to use deadly force in that defense, with no responsibility or accountability for his or her role in the events that led to the dispute.

It deeply concerns me how this case was prosecuted from the very beginning. The fact is, George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed seventeen year old black teenager, who was walking back from a 7-Eleven to buy some tea and candy.

The fact is, George Zimmerman profiled and pursued this young teen after 911 dispatchers told him not to. He then fought with him, shot him, and proclaimed self-defense. The fact is, the Sanford police did not collect and preserve evidence and just labeled Trayvon Martin as a ‘John Doe’, rather than attempt to see if he lived or belonged in the complex.

That same police department sent Zimmerman home that night. It took national anger and attention to even get an arrest and trial. Then, the prosecution put on a very defective case with a jury that had a very troubling makeup. These facts should shock everyone.

The idea of universal suspicion without evidence is what people upset with the ‘not guilty’ verdict find repugnant.

Justice is supposed to be “blind” but it isn’t. It does not help that the same prosecutor who lost the Zimmerman case recently won a conviction against Marissa Alexander, a black woman who fired a warning shot in the ceiling of her home to chase off her abusive ex-husband.

She hurt or killed not one, but was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as the ‘stand your ground’ defense did not work for her.

Craig Pittman from Slate said it best: “Twenty years for a warning shot against a known abuser versus no time at all for killing an unarmed teenager leaves you scratching your head and wondering if justice is not just blind but also insane.”

Let me be clear. Racial bias is real. Racial profiling is real. Racial inequity is real. Racial injustice is real. Don’t take my word for it, read the studies on racial profiling and unconscious bias yourself. Study history and how people of color have been treated by the courts, and how juries have treated black victims, and black defendants.

Study modern day sentencing guidelines and how people of color are disproportionately and more harshly convicted for the same or lesser crimes as their white counterparts. The proof is all there.

There are only two people who will ever know for sure what happened that night, and who was screaming for his life. One of them is dead, and the other has been acquitted in his murder. And with that acquittal, the chapter of the Trayvon Martin case, one that has transfixed and divided a country for a year and a half is over.

It is not over for future victims. We help them by changing the law, which is inadequate in most states to deal with America’s gun culture. Carrying a weapon in public should carry certain responsibilities. In most cases, someone with a gun should not be able to escape responsibility if he or she starts a conflict with someone unarmed, and the unarmed person ends up getting shot and killed.

Under the current law in many states, people threatened by armed individuals have few options, because fighting back might create a warrant to kill.

Trayvon Martin stood his ground and was killed for it. Unless the law is changed to deal with the large number of people carrying concealed guns, there will be more tragic and unnecessary deaths of innocent people like Trayvon Martin for which nobody is legally liable.

For me, this case is about the extreme inequality in the presumption of innocence and the application of justice. Protests, vigils, and petitions are great, but to truly fight inequalities in our justice system, we must go through the court system and change the law.

Those marching in the streets today must march to the voting booth and vote out people who agree with and vote in ‘stand your ground’ laws. That’s the only way to truly honor the memory of Trayvon Martin and other victims like him, regardless of race.

Rogette Harris is a PennLive/Patriot-News community columnist. Her work appears monthly.